Cases of deadly hospital bug fall

Cases of a deadly hospital bug have fallen but more than 6,000 older patients were still infected in the last three months of last year, official figures show.

By Kate Devlin, Medical Correspondent

1:54PM BST 16 Apr 2009

There were 6,257 cases of C. difficile (C. diff) in patients aged 65 and over between October and December 2008, according to statistics from the Health Protection Agency (HPA). The number of cases fell 11 per cent on the previous quarter, when 7,062 patients were infected, and a 38 per cent on the same quarter in 2007, when there were 10,012 cases.

There were also 1,649 cases of C. diff in people aged between two and 64 in the last quarter of 2008, the figures show.

Another 7,906 infections were found in babies aged under two.

Both sets of figures represent a slight drop on the previous quarter.

The infection causes diarrhoea and can strike hardest in the weak and the elderly.

Andrew Lansley, the shadow health secretary, said the figures were "appalling".

He added: "It's shameful evidence of Labour's failure that deaths from C. diff every year are now more than eight times higher than they were when Labour came to power."

A spokeswoman from the HPA said that the fall showed how hard NHS staff were working to fight the infection.